254 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



and the drives from New Mexico brought the supply 

 of mutton beyond the demand." 



Naturally the first thought of sheep-raising was to 

 supply the local butchers and obtain the prices that 

 all foods commanded during the great gold rush. 

 This undoubtedly actuated the importation of the 

 best mutton breeds of English sheep which have been 

 noted as coming in so early that the first state fair 

 awards went to them and not to distinctively wool 

 sheep, which, however, quickly followed. As is the 

 case with all new undertakings, the earliest pioneers 

 in sheep-raising did not know where they were or 

 whither they should go and their very first venture 

 was a very poor one. Perkins writes in his historical 

 sketch, already cited : " Scarcely anything but 

 native or New Mexican sheep could be found and 

 these, worthless as they were, were further debased 

 by crossing with some Chinese rams imported in 

 1852. The only recommendation either of these 

 classes of sheep possessed was their tremendous 

 fecundity the ewes often bearing triplets and some- 

 times five and even seven at a birth." Another ac- 

 count says that these Chinese sheep would drop two 

 such litters in a year. 



Evidently the first great question was whether to 

 grow mutton or wool, but it was very quickly 

 answered. J. D. Patterson, looking backward in 

 1867 to his work of a decade before, wrote : "Though 

 1 imported from the best flocks in England, South- 

 downs, Leicesters and Cotswolds, I believed that 

 growing sheep chiefly for mutton could be overdone, 



